Hello everyone,So yesterday, I went to the book store and bought the 'Linux Magazine'. In the July 2008 edition, I found the Mandriva (spring-1.0) DVD and I read the whole article about it. It boasted about a lot of things such as, "how easy it is to install" and "how the control center in Mandriva is so unique". As, its clear so far that I like to try out many distributions and I always like to compare them with Ubuntu, which I have been using for many years. I have been looking for a distro which can replace Ubuntu but I think that, that search is never going to end.
So, before I tell you about my experience with Mandriva, I would like to tell you what kind of computer I own and what kind of situation I was in before I gave a try to Mandriva.
I have a Dell Latitude D630, with 512MB RAM, 60GB hdd and Intel Centrino Duo Core. I had three partitions on my computer. I had Windows on a 20GB partition and then the rest of 40GB was alocated to Ubuntu. I had two partitions for Ubuntu and I alocated 10GB to the "/" and 30GB to "/home".
So I popped in the Mandriva DVD, which I got with the "Linux Magazine" and then I installed it just the way Ubuntu was installed on my computer and obviously, I got rid of Ubuntu. The installation was pretty slow compared to Ubuntu and things like setting up the system clock and partition table etc were not as user friendly as Ubuntu. Anyway, I did what I had to do to get Mandriva installed on my computer and at the end, it asked me to restart the computer. I was really excited about the whole thing but all my excitement just evaporated when I got a message when my computer wouldn't restart after the installation. I got an error messages saying that, my hdd was currupt.
Now you tell me how I would feel when I get a message like that. I was so furious as now it wouldn't even let me go back to my previous partition status. I tried to look for help online, but there was nothing available online which could help me. Then I got the idea of putting Ubuntu CD and then checking my partition. Guess what! My whole hard-drive was deleted. I lost freaking everything. Mandriva just locked everything and my whole partition was gone. Ubuntu even couldn't recognize my partition table or Windows.
Well, then I thought, now that I have lost everything anyway, let me give Mandriva another try. I re-installed Mandriva and this time it worked. It worked but there was a really really annoying problem. They boasted that they use Network-Manager-0.7 in the Linux Magazine article, but they forgot to set it up for the the user. When I tried to connect to my DSL Wireless, it asked me to download some dependencies off the Internet.
"How do you think that I will be able to get something online, if my freaking Wireless is not working?"
Then as a price to install/try Mandriva, I lost my Windows but I leanrt a valuable lesson. Don't try out anything without having a backup. Thank God that I had a backup on my external hdd before I tried Mandriva.
Now I have only Ubuntu on my system. I have tried many Linux Operating Systems but my personal experience with Mandriva was the worst. I thought that Linux operating systems are trying to be more user friendly, but if this is how they are going to be then, how do you expect to attract Windows and Mac users to start using Linux. No wonder why Mandriva is on #6 on DistroWatch.
So I would like to convey this message to everyone, that DON'T INSTALL OR GIVE A TRY TO MANDRIVA UNLESS YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM. As in my previous blog, I shared my experience with Suse-11.0 with everyone, but I never told anyone not to give it a try if they wanted to, but in the case of Mandriva, I would say you should only give it a try if you are truly not happy with your current operating system.
Here is a take home message for you. If you are using Ubuntu, then please don't even think about giving a try to Mandriva, you will get disappointed in so many ways!
If you have any comments or remarks then feel free to drop them in the comments section.
These are my 2 cents for you! Hope this helps some people out there.
So, before I tell you about my experience with Mandriva, I would like to tell you what kind of computer I own and what kind of situation I was in before I gave a try to Mandriva.
I have a Dell Latitude D630, with 512MB RAM, 60GB hdd and Intel Centrino Duo Core. I had three partitions on my computer. I had Windows on a 20GB partition and then the rest of 40GB was alocated to Ubuntu. I had two partitions for Ubuntu and I alocated 10GB to the "/" and 30GB to "/home".
So I popped in the Mandriva DVD, which I got with the "Linux Magazine" and then I installed it just the way Ubuntu was installed on my computer and obviously, I got rid of Ubuntu. The installation was pretty slow compared to Ubuntu and things like setting up the system clock and partition table etc were not as user friendly as Ubuntu. Anyway, I did what I had to do to get Mandriva installed on my computer and at the end, it asked me to restart the computer. I was really excited about the whole thing but all my excitement just evaporated when I got a message when my computer wouldn't restart after the installation. I got an error messages saying that, my hdd was currupt.
Now you tell me how I would feel when I get a message like that. I was so furious as now it wouldn't even let me go back to my previous partition status. I tried to look for help online, but there was nothing available online which could help me. Then I got the idea of putting Ubuntu CD and then checking my partition. Guess what! My whole hard-drive was deleted. I lost freaking everything. Mandriva just locked everything and my whole partition was gone. Ubuntu even couldn't recognize my partition table or Windows.
Well, then I thought, now that I have lost everything anyway, let me give Mandriva another try. I re-installed Mandriva and this time it worked. It worked but there was a really really annoying problem. They boasted that they use Network-Manager-0.7 in the Linux Magazine article, but they forgot to set it up for the the user. When I tried to connect to my DSL Wireless, it asked me to download some dependencies off the Internet.
"How do you think that I will be able to get something online, if my freaking Wireless is not working?"
Then as a price to install/try Mandriva, I lost my Windows but I leanrt a valuable lesson. Don't try out anything without having a backup. Thank God that I had a backup on my external hdd before I tried Mandriva.
Now I have only Ubuntu on my system. I have tried many Linux Operating Systems but my personal experience with Mandriva was the worst. I thought that Linux operating systems are trying to be more user friendly, but if this is how they are going to be then, how do you expect to attract Windows and Mac users to start using Linux. No wonder why Mandriva is on #6 on DistroWatch.
So I would like to convey this message to everyone, that DON'T INSTALL OR GIVE A TRY TO MANDRIVA UNLESS YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM. As in my previous blog, I shared my experience with Suse-11.0 with everyone, but I never told anyone not to give it a try if they wanted to, but in the case of Mandriva, I would say you should only give it a try if you are truly not happy with your current operating system.
Here is a take home message for you. If you are using Ubuntu, then please don't even think about giving a try to Mandriva, you will get disappointed in so many ways!
If you have any comments or remarks then feel free to drop them in the comments section.
These are my 2 cents for you! Hope this helps some people out there.
hello,
ReplyDeleteit is sad to here you got a bad experience while installing Mandriva! i have used mandriva since 1999 (mandrake) and from that time until today, I still believe Mandriva is one of linux distro closest to Windows... again, this DVD you used are complete Mandriva collection and need to do hdd install (as what you did).
i'm sure there is an option before you install to choose free partition or to wipe out all partition.
my advise, you can also download Mandriva One, a Live CD version from their website and try it first before do complete install..
try not to blame 100% on the distro, even ubuntu are not easy to install for beginner..only that, ubuntu got massive community to support and easy to find answer from google if got any problem..
For me Fedora 8 was the worst, now Ubuntu with KDE4 is junk, you have to set screen resolution manualy, in my Opinion Mandriva is far better then Ubuntu
ReplyDelete